


Highway Unicorn

by pentapus, thefourthvine



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Podfic Available, Treehouse Reversebang, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-11
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 03:37:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1000413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentapus/pseuds/pentapus, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefourthvine/pseuds/thefourthvine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He saw the horn poking out from the pony's head, golden and straight and somehow delicate-looking despite the empty tuna can hanging off of it. The <em>unicorn</em> horn. "The <em>fuck</em>," Sidney said out loud, his eye skipping from the horn over the greyish-white body to the graceful gold-toned hooves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Follow That Unicorn

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my amazing alpha readers, thehoyden and twentysomething, and my betas, lightgetsin and thehoyden. 
> 
> Thanks to derryderrydown for the horse behavior consultation, Laura for the Pittsburgh location beta, frostfire for the ancient language help, and thehoyden for discovering that Lady Gaga had essentially already written a song about my story, which made titling suddenly very easy. 
> 
> Thanks, as always, to Best Beloved, the best alpha reader and cheerleader a person could ever hope to have.
> 
> And thanks to pentapus for running this challenge and creating such an awesome drawing. HERE'S YOUR UNICORN, LADY.

Nathalie poked her head into game room. "Sidney, could you take the trash out, please?" Alexa shot Sidney the smug grin of someone who has gotten out of an assigned task, and Sidney sighed heavily for her benefit as he headed to the kitchen. He didn't really mind, though; he wasn't lie-in-bed-all-day hurt anymore, but he was still in the vague haze of pain medication and recovery, and it was just nice to have something useful to _do_. He shoved his feet into his Crocs, grabbed the trash, and headed out the back door. 

He noticed first that the trashcan had fallen over. Then he noticed the animal eating the trash - _dog_ , he thought, but it was too big, the wrong shape. _Horse_ , he realized a second later. Or a pony, actually, because it was a really small horse. 

And then he saw the horn poking out from the pony's head, golden and straight and somehow delicate-looking despite the empty tuna can hanging off of it. The _unicorn_ horn. "The _fuck_ ," Sidney said out loud, his eye skipping from the horn over the greyish-white body to the graceful gold-toned hooves. 

The unicorn looked up and directly at him. Sidney blinked at it, frozen with the trash bag still in his hand. They locked eyes for a long moment. Then the unicorn went back to - _ew_. Licking the melted leftover ice cream out of a carton of vanilla, the carton Sidney'd finished the night before while wishing desperately it was a steak. 

"Hey," Sidney said. "That's disgusting. Don't do that." _I'm talking to a unicorn_ , he realized, and maybe it was all the painkillers he was on, but the fact just arrived in his mind and sat there heavily while he tried to figure out how to react. 

"Am I hallucinating?" he finally asked. Although possibly asking a figment of his imagination wasn't the right way to go, here. 

The unicorn gave him a look. A really seriously judgmental look, way too judgmental for anyone eating gross ice cream out of the trash. 

Sidney dropped the trash bag near the garbage can and went back to the house. He was almost at the door when he realized he couldn't do that, and he turned around to clean up the mess.

No unicorn.

Fuck.

~

Sidney spent a few hours making justifications to himself - he was two weeks out from the broken jaw and he'd had not one concussion symptom. He was fine. He'd probably just seen a dog. He was on a lot of medication, and he was not getting a whole lot of quality sleep, and sometimes that made you see weird stuff. And, anyway, one single instance of seeing something obviously impossible did not really qualify as _hallucinations_. 

Still. The next night, after dinner, he said, enunciating as carefully as he could around his broken teeth, "I'm going for a walk." And he did, making sure to pass by the trash cans on his way out. 

Nothing. No - no dog or anything. Sidney sighed in relief and started a brisk walk up the street. 

He didn't see the unicorn until he was on his way back. This time, it was nosing through the Strakas' trash; as Sidney watched, it ripped into a heavy plastic garbage bag with its teeth, then used its hooves to open the bag wider. It pulled out a carton of chocolate ice cream and began licking.

Sidney flinched. Chocolate was poisonous to dogs; what if it was poisonous to unicorns? Resisting the urge to smack himself for having thought that, he stepped forward and said, "Hey. Don't eat that."

The unicorn looked up at him. Sidney could swear it rolled its eyes. Then it whickered a little. 

"It might be poisonous for you," Sidney said defensively. Then he went on the attack. "Anyway, you're a horse. Shouldn't you be eating grass?" 

The unicorn whinnied again and went back to the carton. Sidney stood there, trying to figure out if he was willing to go take the carton away from a creature with a very pointy horn on its head. Then he realized he was talking about an _imaginary_ creature, shook his head, and walked back into the house. 

He spent most of the night floating in an opiate-induced haze, unable to think about the unicorn with any kind of reason, equally unable to stop thinking about it entirely and go to sleep. It had seemed so real. But it couldn't be. 

In the morning, he called the doctor. Maybe this was all just a side effect.

~

The conversation with Dr. Harner was painfully awkward and entirely inconclusive. "I'm seeing unicorns," Sidney told him. 

"Huh," Dr. Harner said, sounding determinedly calm. "All the time? Is there a unicorn here right now?"

" _No_ ," Sidney said, exasperated. "I - I guess it's really only one unicorn. I've seen it twice, out by Mario's house. Pawing through the trash."

"I see," Dr. Harner said. The next ten minutes contained a lot of discussion of stress and pain medication and tricks of the eyes, all of which was utterly unhelpful. Sidney _knew_ what he'd seen. He trusted his eyes. His brain might not function too well at times, but his eyes were _great._ But in the end - well. Dr. Harner asked him to keep a diary of any further sightings and to check back in next week. 

Sidney thanked him before he left, but he didn't mean it. 

~

The time out wore on. Sidney was watching a great team on paper not really come together on the ice, and he couldn't get out there and help. He spent a lot of time carefully reminding himself _not_ to grit his teeth, _not_ to tense his jaw. Not to yell at anyone. He watched practices and made notes and tried to avoid getting his hopes up before his visits to various doctors, who never said what he needed them to. 

He also saw the unicorn again. Each time he carefully recorded it in his unicorn-watching diary, even though he knew he'd never show Dr. Harner his entries.

_April 18 - 9:30 p.m._

_Saw unicorn kicking over trashcans on Academy while I was coming back from the store._  
  
He was carrying a bottle of chocolate milk, which he'd bought as a substitute for what he really wanted, and drinking another one as he walked. 

The unicorn came trotting up as soon as he turned onto Mario's block. Sidney flinched away a little, and it responding with a sound remarkably like a snicker. 

"I'm not talking to you," he said firmly. This seemed like the right way to deal with things, although possibly that was the Percocet talking. 

The unicorn rolled its eyes and nosed interestedly at the bottle of chocolate milk. 

"It's milk," Sidney said. "It's not for unicorns." The unicorn nosed harder and made a soft neighing sound. 

"How would you even drink it?" The unicorn licked the bottle hopefully. 

Sidney gave in. He managed to sort of pour the bottle into her mouth, although a lot leaked out the sides. He left her licking at a patch of spilled chocolate milk and headed back home, where he drank his other bottle standing up in the kitchen. 

He was still worried that chocolate might be bad for unicorns. He was less worried that he was hallucinating, though; hallucinations didn't have hot breath and a weird rough tongue and really a lot more spit than you'd ever associate with such a supposedly saintly mythological creature. 

When he finished the bottle, he reminded himself of what his father had always said. "It's not important," Sidney said out loud in the empty kitchen. "It's not hockey." He needed to work through this: get his jaw healed, get his conditioning back, get out on the ice. Unicorns weren't important. He'd learned to ignore a lot. He could ignore this.

_April 23 - 2:00 a.m.  
_  
 _Unicorn ran down the street when I looked out the window._  
  
He didn't actually write down the rest of the encounter, because it was - kind of embarrassing. Sidney was mostly up because he was _hungry_ , was the problem. He found himself wandering around the house late at night, yearning for real food to eat, fantasizing helplessly about cheese and bacon and toffee. That was probably why he opened the drawer as soon as he saw the unicorn.

A few days after the broken jaw, Sidney had buried all his candy at the bottom of a drawer where he wouldn't be able to see it. Now he pulled some out - chocolate, mostly, but he included red licorice as a potentially better-for-unicorns option - and headed downstairs. 

He felt like an idiot, standing on the street with candy in his hand, but he only had to wait about five minutes for the unicorn to appear. He - she? - stood about five feet away, regarding Sidney with a jaded expression. 

"I thought you might be hungry," Sidney said, trying not to feel ridiculous. "I brought you candy." He held out his hands to show the unicorn the options. 

The unicorn came forward and nosed at Sidney's hands twice before settling its muzzle on the peanut butter cups. 

"Yeah, I like those a lot, too," Sidney said, and unwrapped them. The unicorn ate both of them, one bite each; the second time, it also got the paper wrapper.

Sidney went back to the house feeling less hungry, somehow. 

_April 26 - 11:00 p.m._

_Unicorn stood under my window and neighed loudly._  
  
The neighing hadn't bothered anyone else, of course - only Sidney could see the stupid unicorn, and even the dogs were entirely unbothered by its presence - but he'd known it would keep him awake. So it made sense to grab some peanut butter cups from the supply he'd laid in and head downstairs. 

"How did you even get in?" Sidney said, rubbing between the unicorn's ears and playing with its floppy mane. "There's a gate for a reason."

The unicorn rolled its eyes and whinnied, nosing at Sidney's pocket where he had the peanut butter cups.

"I brought you an apple, too," Sidney said, pulling it out. "Horses like apples."

The unicorn made a derisive snorting noise and went back to snorfling at the pocket with the candy in it. Sidney found himself in the awkward position of negotiating with a unicorn. "Eat the apple and you can have _four_ peanut butter cups," Sidney said. 

The unicorn tried to get its nose into the pocket of Sidney's hoodie. And failed.

"Just _try_ it," Sidney said, holding the apple out. "I swear Wikipedia said horses like these."

The unicorn gently prodded Sidney with its horn, ears laid back a little, and Sidney got the message. "I know you're not a horse. The Wikipedia article on unicorns really wasn't helpful." Sidney winced, thinking about the page's horrifying mention of the Throne Chair of Denmark. "Come on, just _try_ it."

The unicorn sighed heavily, covering Sidney's hoodie in unicorn spit, and then took the apple and crunched through it grimly. Then it looked at Sidney, and he could kind of see it going: _I tried it. Now give me the candy._

Sidney gave it the candy. "I wish I knew your name," he said. 

The unicorn chomped solidly through a peanut butter cup. 

"Maybe I should call you Candy," Sidney said. The unicorn whinnied. It sounded a lot like laughing. Sidney grinned back at her, and reached to rub some of the mud or whatever it was off her shoulder. 

She was really filthy, actually. But she was still good company. 

_April 27 - 12:30 a.m._

_Found unicorn wandering the street. Lured to sidewalk, gave her some food._  
  
Sidney was feeling a little shaky - they'd won against the Hurricanes and they were destined for the playoffs, but he hadn't played for a month and didn't know when he'd be able to start - so he went looking for Candy as soon as everyone else was asleep.

He found her down the block, standing in the middle of the street, looking sweaty and shaking. Her eyes were so wide Sidney could see the whites, and her head was up, nostrils flared. 

"Hey, what's the matter?" Sidney asked, forgetting to look around to make sure no one could see him talking to thin air. 

Well. It was a quiet neighborhood, so it would probably be all right. 

Sidney tried to get Candy back to the sidewalk, but she shook her head and neighed. He didn't hesitate, going right for the peanut butter cups. She didn't _want_ to follow him back to the sidewalk, that was clear, but he knew her weakness by now. 

Eventually, he got her settled down and led her back up the street toward Mario's house. When they got across from the Steinbergs' place, she stopped dead. And then their dogs started barking. 

Which was - weird. None of the other dogs had any problems with Candy. Just to be sure, Sidney walked over across the street; as usual, both dogs bounded up to the gate to poke their noses through for petting. They didn't bark at Sidney. 

But they barked at Sidney leading Candy past them. Huh.

The feeling of relief was intense, because - okay, Mario's dogs couldn't see Candy. The Strakas' dogs couldn't see Candy. The Berkshires' dogs couldn't see Candy. But these dogs could. Which meant Sidney wasn't alone in seeing the unicorn anymore. 

Candy was almost definitely real.

Sidney celebrated by giving her a Snickers, too, and scratching her mane and all down along her back. She seemed to like it best right between her shoulder blades, so he focused there until she was limp and relaxed looking. 

"Hey," Sidney said to her quietly. "You're real."

She looked singularly unimpressed by the news. 

_April 29 - 8:30 p.m._

_Saw unicorn._  
  
Sidney's order came, so he waited until everyone else had left the house to go for dinner somewhere with ribs and steak and chicken and - well, obviously Sidney wasn't going. Instead, he went down with his new box of brushes and a really large supply of peanut butter cups and Snickers and even some almond roca. 

Candy came trotting up, nickering, as soon as he entered the yard. He tried to be sort of subtle about hooking up the hose, but she snorted warily as soon as he touched it. 

"You're dirty," Sidney told her. "You need to be washed."

Candy snorted again, ears flat back. 

"Look, I bought you brushes." He held up the bag with the grooming kit. She still didn't seem impressed, so he added, "And I give a lot more candy to unicorns that are _clean_."

Candy made a kind of loud sighing noise and snorted out about a bucket of horse snot onto Sidney's leg. 

"Yuck," Sidney said. "I definitely only give gross unicorns candy after they're clean." 

Candy gave him a flat, level look, but she held still while Sidney washed her, and shampooed her, and washed her again; shampooing really didn't seem like the most efficient way to get this job done. He dried her off, after, and then brushed out her coat and mane and tail. When he was done, she actually seemed to glow. The moon was out, and full, and it was like she was reflecting its rays. Almost like she radiated a soft white light of her own. She was painfully beautiful. 

"You're a really pretty unicorn," Sidney told her honestly. 

Candy rolled her eyes and nosed pointedly at his bag of treats.

"Yeah, yeah," Sidney said, unwrapping briskly. "You like me because I'm your chocolate supplier."

Candy neighed loudly. When Sidney looked up, she butted him gently with the side of her head, then pushed her nose against him and slobbered all over his shirt. "Ew," Sidney said again, even though this time he was a little touched. Candy leaned her whole body against Sidney's, hard, and went back to inhaling peanut butter cups.


	2. On This Lonely Road

The unicorn sightings trailed off during the playoffs, though Sidney made sure to take down some food to Candy whenever they were home, and spent a few minutes brushing and talking to her when he could. 

Then the playoffs were over, god _damn_ it. He got his dental surgery and spent a couple hours the night afterward in the garden, gorging on chewy, nutty chocolate with Candy, just reveling in having a whole, healed jaw again. 

And then he went to Los Angeles, and things got out of hand. 

As soon as he got off the plane he saw a lady with pointy ears and sparkling, literally sparkling, purple eyes. It was like she'd found glitter contacts somewhere. She smiled at him and held up two curled fingers on her left hand, her thumb half-extended to make a kind of C shape. Sidney stared blankly. She raised an eyebrow and repeated the gesture. Then she rolled her eyes.

It was probably just LA. Maybe pointy ears and sparkling eyes were new plastic surgery trends. He held onto that until he got off the freeway in his rental car; he almost drove it into a traffic light when he glanced over at the sidewalk - which was _much_ more crowded than he remembered from previous visits - and saw a dude on a horse trotting down the sidewalk. 

No, a dude who _was_ a horse. His bottom half was a horse, anyway; the top half was wearing a Lakers jersey and a backwards Dodgers cap, and the ensemble was enough to rivet Sidney until a whole chorus of angry honks got him back into motion. 

By the time he got to the condo in Santa Monica, Sidney had seen more weird shit than he had in the whole rest of his life, to the point where he really missed his friendly junk-food-addict yinzer unicorn. He sat in the car for a while, breathing deeply, trying to figure out if he'd somehow gone beyond hallucinations and into - what, psychosis?

Then an SUV pulled into the parking spot next to him, and a guy with wings - sparkly wings that matched his hair - got out. Another guy, likewise with wings, got out of the other side. They waved at Sidney before heading off to their condo. Their feet never touched the ground. 

"I'm losing my _mind_ ," Sidney said, horrified.

But he was still meeting Andy and Matt for dinner, so he got his bags out of the rental and let himself into the condo. 

~

Dinner with Matt and Andy was at a refreshingly weird-free place in Santa Monica. Sidney didn't even mind the LA-ness of the food - who put caviar in an egg shell? - because no one in the restaurant looked anything other than human. 

Or at least Sidney thought so. Then he caught the eye of a man at the next table - chalk-pale skin, solid red eyes, _fangs_ \- and suddenly the appetizers were a lot less appetizing. 

He couldn't keep his eyes away from the guy, and he couldn't really focus on the conversation, either, because - uh, _vampire._

"Sidney? How's the condo?" Andy said, his tone indicating that he'd maybe already said that a few times. 

"Oh, fine," Sidney said randomly, his eyes still focused over Matt's shoulder, where the vampire was. As Sidney watched, he lifted his glass and toasted Sidney, smiling in a way that showed off his mouth, disturbingly empty of any teeth but the fangs. Sidney noticed his plate was empty, though his companion was clearly eating, and that was so disturbing he didn't think about what he was saying. "I think my neighbors are fairies, though."

There was a long, awkward pause, and Sidney realized what he'd just said. "Um. I mean - nothing bad," he added helplessly. 

"Yeah, um," Matt said, staring down at his plate. Andy, eyebrows a little raised, changed the subject. 

After dinner, though, Andy said, "Hey, Sidney, got some time? I just want to go over the schedules for this week." 

They took separate cars, of course, and Sidney got there first. He was still unlocking the door when Andy came up behind him and said, "Which side?"

"What?" Sidney said, blinking.

"Which side are the fairies on?"

"That one," Sidney said, gesturing, and added, blushing, "I didn't mean - I didn't mean, you know, _gay_ , though maybe they are. I don't - whatever, that's fine. I just meant." And then he gave up, because obviously if he said anything about wings, Andy would call Mario or something. 

"Yeah, I know," Andy said, and headed to the condo next door. Sidney watched him knock. The dude with the slightly darker wings answered, and Andy lifted his hand and made a sort of Z shape in the air with two fingers; the fairy made wavy motions with one hand. While Sidney stared, they said a few words. Andy pointed at Sidney, and they both laughed. Then Andy came back over. 

"He's a fairy, all right," Andy said. "Not the kind you have to worry about, though. Water Clan, good standing, domestic, hasn't transgressed in years." He shrugged. "So, gonna tell me about your lady?"

"I don't have a lady," Sidney said, and if his tone was a little irritated, it was because _nothing was making sense_. Andy was supposed to be talking about strength and cardio, and instead he was rambling on about fairies and Sidney's non-existent girlfriend.

"Okay, then your guy," Andy said, sort of pushing Sidney into his own condo. 

"I don't have a guy, either," Sidney said.

"Well, last year when we were out here you didn't notice that a fucking _half-giant_ was hitting on you, and tonight you saw that ibru vampire clear as anything, so _someone_ made you a part of their clan. Get adopted?"

"What? No," Sidney said. "Wait, you see this stuff too?"

Andy grinned at him. "My mom's mom is an Ice Clan wanderer," he said. "The blood's too dilute for me to have any powers, but Gran formally marked us when we were born." 

"Jesus fucking Christ. I thought I was going crazy," Sidney said. The wave of relief made his legs shaky enough that he had to sit down.

Andy frowned. "What, someone took you into a Clan and didn't _tell you_? That's fucking rude."

"How - how do you get into a Clan?" Sidney said.

Andy opened his mouth and then closed it, looking thoughtful. "I don't know, actually. I was marked at birth, like I said. I'll call my Gran tomorrow and find out." 

~

Andy came back the next night with a list of questions. "Okay, so," he said, reading from his list, "was it all of a sudden? Like, BAM, you couldn't see, and then the next day you could see everything?"

Sidney hesitated. "Pretty much," he said. "But at first it wasn't like this, not - all the different kinds of, of whatever. Not like here. At first it was just one unicorn."

Andy winced. "Sidney..." he said. "Seriously? A unicorn?"

"I'm _not_ a virgin," Sidney said defensively.

"Okay, fine, okay," Andy said, holding his hands up. But he didn't say anything else. 

Sidney folded his arms across his chest and glared at Andy. "I'm _not_ ," he repeated, and it was absolutely true. He'd kissed, he'd touched, he'd even - well, penetrated, and he was definitely not a virgin. 

Virginity couldn't grow back, after all. Sidney focused on that, and determinedly didn't think about the only action he'd seen all season. That had been pretty awkward and embarrassing, all things considered. Even if he couldn't possibly have known he'd break his jaw.

"Well, you know, maybe the legends - they get stuff wrong," Andy said kindly, and then he cleared his throat and moved on. "So, at first it was just a unicorn? Because I know Mario has a bunch of elves right down the street from him. Did you see them?"

Sidney blinked. "Uh, no, but - I wasn't going out a lot there, so maybe I just missed them."

"Pittsburgh's not like LA, it doesn't attract our kind," Andy said. "But still. You should have seen something besides a unicorn."

"Wait, LA attracts - um - us?" Sidney said. It sounded wrong to call himself a member of - whatever, the Weird Company - but if it was a choice between being different or being crazy, well, he was used to being different. 

"Yeah, there's a whole -" Andy waved his hand. "It just feels good out here. Partly it's just we're all attracted to the west, we all want to move towards the setting sun. And partly it's - I don't know. You feel like you belong out here." 

Sidney didn't feel like he belonged. It was half the reason he came to LA: he _didn't_ belong, almost no one recognized him. The other half of the reason was - "This is why you like training here."

"Yeah," Andy said. "No powers, but I still feel the westering call." He sighed. "Luck of the draw, there you go." He considered his list. "I think I've gotta say it came on you slowly, not all at once."

"Is that good or bad?" Sidney wanted to know if he should argue or not.

"Well, it means you probably weren't, like, knocked unconscious and married against your will or something. Gran says marriages and adoptions take instant effect; as soon as the ceremony is complete, you can see everything, the whole shebang." Andy laughed. "Hey, maybe this is all just more of your weird vision thing. Maybe you're the first person ever to see the Other _accidentally_."

Sidney wasn't sure if he wanted that or not. Accidents were not explanations. At least if someone had done this to him, he'd be able to yell at them. "Is that the only question?"

"Oh, no. Okay, how many Others do you know?"

"You."

"Nah, come on. You know Beau Bennett, for one thing."

Sidney rolled his eyes. "He is _not_."

Andy shrugged. "I'm, like, 90% sure. He just looks -" and he made a kind of wavy gesture with his hand. "You know. There's something about him. He has the look."

Sidney pulled out his phone and started dialing.

~

Beau showed up almost two hours later. "Sorry!" he said, coming in. "I got kind of lost." Sidney wasn't prepared to chirp him about it, since he'd driven to Santa Monica late on a Tuesday night for no other reason than Sidney asking him to. 

"No problem," Sidney said, and he found himself squinting at Beau; it looked like he was backlit, almost. But Sidney didn't have a migraine, so - that was weird. Maybe he was just tired. 

"Beau, Andy," Sidney said. "Andy, Beau."

"Oh, hey!" Beau smiled happily. "It's way awesome to meet you." He held out his hand to shake, and Andy responded with the gesture he'd used before - two fingers making a sort-of-Z in the air. Beau blinked at him, and then looked cautiously over at Sidney. "Um," he said.

"He's one of us," Andy said.

" _Really_?" Beau said, staring at Sidney. 

"Probably," Sidney said, and gave him his best level stare. "Do your thing."

Beau nodded and turned a little pink. "Okay, but, like, don't judge. My parents are awesome." And then he made two signs, one with his left hand and one with his right. 

Andy cracked up. 

" _Hey_ ," Beau said, and he looked genuinely hurt. 

"Andy -" Sidney began. He didn't know exactly what to say, or why it was funny, but it was obviously something Beau took seriously, so he had to intervene. 

Andy choked back his laughter. "No, no, I'm sorry," he said, waving his hand. "No judgment. I'm not some separatist. Just - you're _Sky_ Clan and _Light_ Clan."

"Yeah?" Beau said, warily.

"You're _literally_ sunshine," Andy said, and started laughing again. 

Beau flushed even darker. "My mom really likes that nickname," he mumbled. 

Eventually, Sidney got them all seated and on task. "Okay, so," he said. "Who else do you know in the NHL who's - like us?"

Beau blinked at him. "Well, Teemu," he said. "I mean, I don't _know him_ know him, but, like, you don't have to. I remember going to his games when I was a kid, and, you know. There he was. I thought it was super cool."

Sidney nodded. He hadn't even heard of Others until recently, but if anyone in hockey was going to be one, Teemu would obviously head the list. 

"We all know about Teemu," Andy said, waving that off. "We're asking about guys who look human even to us."

"Um, not that many?" Beau looked at them, and seemed to wilt a little. "Like, it's weird to ask, okay? And a lot of them - you know how they are. It's better if I don't tell people, because what if someone wouldn't play with me after they knew?" He made the same two-handed sign he had before and shrugged. "So I don't do the signs or anything. I just don't ask. I mean, I always wondered about Bryzgalov, because he's just so weird. But I don't _know_."

"Huh, Bryz," Andy said, and looked interested. 

"Is he?" Sidney hoped not. Calling him up and asking for a list of people like him, like them, would be - awkward. 

Andy shrugged. "Next time you see him, show your sign to him and see. That is, if we ever figure out what your sign is."

Beau looked at him, big-eyed. "You don't know?"

"He crossed over recently," Andy said.

Beau frowned. "I thought you had to marry someone for that to happen." He checked out Sidney's left hand. 

"Yeah, so you see our problem," Andy said, gesturing at Sidney. 

"Huh." Beau looked at Andy, looked at Sidney, looked away. 

"Spit it out," Sidney told him. 

"Like, I know this girl," Beau said. Sidney sighed. "No, not like that! I mean, okay, I would, but she just wouldn't. She's not - like, she turned me down."

"So we know she has good taste," Andy said. "Go on."

Beau flipped him the bird and said, "She's at UCLA, and she studies this stuff. She's like kind of a - magical scientist thing, or she's learning to be, anyway. She might be able to figure it out."

"It's one thing to tell hockey players," Sidney objected. "But some stranger? How do you know you can trust her?"

Andy and Beau exchanged glances. "Sidney," Andy finally said, "this is the kind of secret that's really easy to keep. No one believes you. There are _centuries old glamours_ that prevent Other stuff from being noticed by people who don't belong. If you try to tell someone normal about us, they'll forget you ever said anything. Same with this girl."

"But she'll know," Sidney pointed out. "She'll be able to tell anyone who - who is an Other." His heart was pounding, because - obviously this was a bad idea. How could Andy and Beau not get that?

"Right. She'll know. But, Sidney - anyone who _can_ know this, this is just normal to them. They won't care. At most, it'll be like, oh, hey, we should check out a hockey game, there's that player who is one of us. If they can know what we are, they don't mind what we are."

That was obviously untrue. Beau had been wary about telling them, and Andy had understood that. Still. Something had been _done_ to Sidney, someone had changed him without even asking him, and he wanted to know why. Sidney hesitated, torn, until the desire to know won out. "Okay," he said. "Do you think - should I come visit you? I could come up, hmmm, day after tomorrow."

"Or I could just call her and see if she wants to come up here now," Beau said. "Here's closer for her anyway."

"It's _midnight_ ," Sidney said. "What if you wake her up?"

"She'll call me a dumb fucker and go back to sleep," Beau said, and pulled out his phone, scrolled, tapped it a few times. "Hey," he said into it. "How are you?" He rolled his eyes. "No, I'm _not_. But are you busy, though?" Sidney chewed his lip as Beau protested through a few more minutes, before finally saying, "No, seriously, I just - I know this guy, he's trying to find his clan, I thought you could help." He blinked in surprise. "Um, okay, great." He handed the phone to Sidney. "She needs the address."

~

Soledad Cruz didn't get lost. She knocked on Sidney's door 45 minutes later, and she was laughing a little when Beau let her in. "Someone in this building is _so high_ on pixie dust," she said. "I could smell it from the _street_." She was little and carrying a huge, heavy backpack and a messenger bag, but she seemed pretty bouncy, even so. She had medium-brown skin and dark kinky hair with red streaks in it, and weird, smeary tattoos on her neck and hands. 

"Huh," Beau said, and glanced at the door.

"No," Sidney said automatically. "You're not using illegal substances in my house."

Soledad's eyes widened and her eyebrows drew together. "Um," she said, and raised her thumb and two fingers to make two sides of a triangle. Andy did his Z, Beau did his two-handed thing. Sidney crossed his arms in front of his chest and tried not to feel like an outsider. 

"He's new," Beau said. "Like I was telling you, he doesn't even know his clan."

She frowned. "But how is that possible?"

"We've been trying to figure that out," Andy said. "We know he didn't marry into it. Or get adopted."

"No, I mean, how is that possible when he has like five different enchantments on him that are so strong you could see them from space?"

Beau and Andy stared at him. "Are you sure?" Andy said.

"I have the _sight_ ," she said impatiently. "He's lit up like the fucking sun."

Sidney's skin crawled. "I have spells on me?" he said, breathing carefully. "How do I get them off?"

Soledad shrugged. "Um, I could try to break them for you. But they're really strong. I'm not sure I could. And why would you want me to?"

"Because I have _spells on me_ ," Sidney said. 

Andy sighed. "What do they do?"

Soledad looked at Sidney through narrowed eyes. "Hmmm. Basically, it looks like someone really, _really_ wants to keep you safe. There's a luck ward, a projectile barrier, a physical barrier, a protection ward on your head, and a protection ward on your legs." She raised her eyebrows at Sidney. "Dude, someone thinks you are in _big trouble_. Are they right?"

Sidney opened his mouth to deny it, looked over at Andy, and sighed. "I've gotten hurt a lot these past few years."

"This is not papercuts and stubbed toes," she said. 

"He's a hockey player," Beau said helpfully. "And he's been out hurt more than he's played for like the last three years."

"Oh." She considered. "Well, these spells would help. Projectiles? Right, pucks. You really want me to try to break them?"

Sidney hesitated. "Well, there's no _rule_ against spells, but, um..." He knew it was probably an unfair advantage, but at the same time, the thought of not being an injury magnet, being able to play out a full season for once - it was tempting as hell.

Andy shook his head. "He doesn't want them gone, don't be crazy. But can you tell anything about when they were cast on him? Or how? Or by who?"

She shook her head. "Magic doesn't work like that. The way people cast spells, that's as individual as people are, but once they're on, they all look the same. Just stronger or weaker. So all I know is whoever cast these was _really powerful_. Just ask yourself who the strongest spellcaster you know is. It's probably them."

"I don't know any spellcasters," Sidney said. 

"Um, yes you do."

"What if it was a fan?" Beau said. "Just - someone who doesn't want him out anymore?"

Soledad considered, head to one side. "Maybe," she said. "They'd need something of yours, though. There needs to be a connection, and if it isn't emotional, it has to be physical."

"I sign stuff," Sidney offered. "And we give away - like, game-worn jerseys, sticks, stuff like that."

"Something important to you," Soledad said. "Something you're attached to."

"Sticks and jerseys are important to me."

She said, "So, like, you miss them? There's a specific stick or jersey you gave away that is so important to you that you still miss it? You have feelings about them?"

Sidney hesitated. "Not the ones we give away, no."

"Then no. I mean, like, a favorite t-shirt that you've slept in for ten years. A stuffed animal your parents gave you when you were little. Something you made yourself and are really proud of. Like that."

Sidney tried to think back. "Maybe," he said doubtfully.

"Or a connection. Something emotional, something pretty strong. I don't know if caring about a sports team would do it."

Sidney thought about some of the fans he'd met. "I think it would," he said. 

Soledad kind of shrugged. "Well, let's try to figure out your clan," she said. "That will tell us something about the caster, because those spells have to be what brought you over."

Soledad was organized, which Sidney really appreciated. She had a laptop and a binder and her backpack was full of stuff in baggies and little clear plastic boxes, and she started right in. "It helps a lot to narrow things down," she said. "I know we have to consider the possibility of the spells coming from someone you don't know, but the odds are it was someone who knows you pretty well and has access to your things."

"That's most of the National Hockey League," Sidney said. 

"Well, can you get me a list of the Others in the League?" she asked.

Sidney had the impression that it wasn't that easy, but he glanced over at Andy to confirm it. Andy was shaking his head. 

"Someone must be tracking this," she said, looking appalled. 

"Well," Andy said hesitantly. "Yes."

"And?"

"And I don't want to owe him any favors," Andy said. He looked at Soledad and shrugged. "Isharu," he added, looking away quickly. 

"Oh, yeah, understood," she said, and clicked a couple of keys on her computer. "So -"

"Wait," Sidney said. "What does that mean?"

Andy said, "Bettman has the list, and he's an isharu vampire. They, uh. It's better not to ask them for stuff."

"You mean, he's like the guy we saw last night?" Sidney said, horrified. That guy had been _freaky_ , and Sidney really didn't want to imagine spending time around Bettman if he was like that. The CBA negotiations had been enough of a nightmare without a _literal fucking nightmare_ across the table.

"No," Andy said. "That guy was an ibru. If you've got to choose between the two, go isharu, for sure. They might make your life hell, but they'll follow the letter of the law when they do it, anyway."

"But basically just stay away from the Babylonian Curse," Beau said. "My mom says if you think a cursed one can help, you should just think about all the other people he's helped."

Andy and Soledad both laughed. Sidney felt like he'd arrived at the wrong party. 

"Okay, so the next easiest thing is to look at influences," Soledad said. "We'll see what you're attracted to."

Sidney flinched, but it turned out she didn't mean _that_ kind of attracted. Mostly she pulled items out of her backpack and had Sidney hold them. Then she made notes. "I already know you're not air-inflected," she muttered, rooting around for the first item. 

"Air clans tend to have a sort of constant mild aura," Andy explained helpfully. "It's why I was pretty sure Beau was Other."

"We glow!" Beau agreed cheerfully. 

"Yeah, you do," Andy said. "I was trying to give you a little dignity, though."

"Oh, don't bother," Beau told him.

"Sky _and_ Light," Soledad said wryly to Andy, and he laughed. Sidney sighed and held the piece of rough paper Soledad gave him. Then he let her sprinkle water onto his palm. Then he held a twig.

"Huh," Soledad said, even though Sidney hadn't seen or felt anything. "Big negative reaction there." She made a note in her laptop, then handed Sidney something that turned out to be a chunk of fur. With skin still attached and everything. 

"Ew," he said. Soledad just took it away and gave him a lump of something that turned his fingers black.

Ten minutes in, Beau left to go get snacks. Thirty minutes in, he came back with chips and candy and soda. "I got you Snickers and peanut butter cups," he said to Sidney; Sidney thought of Candy and felt a twinge of sadness. He hoped she was finding good stuff to eat and staying away from the Steinbergs' dogs. 

Forty minutes in, Soledad looked up. "Okay, so, I have your affinities list," she said. "But it's _weird_." She flipped through some pages in her binder, then flipped back. "I'm getting - Metal Clan?"

"The what now?" Andy said. 

"Well, it's a little more common in the US than it used to be," she said doubtfully. "But mostly it's - do you know any Russians?"

"Oh, hey, Geno!" Beau said. "We should ask him!" 

Sidney tried not to react visibly, but maybe he didn't succeed, because Andy looked at him, looked at Soledad, and then said to Beau, "Actually, I think we should clear out and let Sidney get some sleep. I've got a full program for him tomorrow." Andy managed to hustle Beau out with reasonable speed. 

After Soledad had packed up all her stuff, she shook Sidney's hand. "If you're Metal Clan, your sign looks like this," she said, and knocked her fist against her open palm. "New world clans usually do one-handed signs, but old world clans almost always use two hands." She showed him the same gesture again. "There's been some interesting papers on why, but no definitive answer." She paused. "Do you have a phone number or email address where I could follow up with you? There are two other methods we didn't try yet, so if this doesn't work out, I'm not stumped or anything."

Sidney exchanged numbers with her sort of numbly, thanked her, offered to pay for her time, gave her gas money, and walked her to her car.

Then he came back in and stared at his hands. He held out a palm and rapped his knuckles against it the way she'd showed him. 

"Geno. An Other?" he said out loud to his empty condo.

This could be awkward as hell. 

~

Sidney took out his phone several times over the next day, each time with the intention of calling Geno. He kept imagining how the conversation would go, though - "Did you happen to cast any spells on me?" - and especially in the context of, of things that had happened in the heat of the moment last season, it just made Sidney cringe. 

He figured it would be better to do it in person. He could wait until Geno came back for camp and then do the - Metal Clan sign. If Geno didn't recognize it, he could say it was something Taylor had taught him. 

And that would avoid the - well. There was a lot that Geno and Sidney weren't talking about, and this was _not_ the way to start that conversation. 

So when Andy asked him how it went, Sidney just said, "I decided to wait until I see him." Andy gave him a couple of really long, thoughtful looks, but he didn't say anything, so Sidney figured he'd won that one. 

And then he picked up his phone after his workout and saw a text from Geno: _Sorry, Sid. ((((_

Sidney blinked at the phone. Just to be sure, he googled Geno's name, but there wasn't any news, like that he'd somehow not signed after all, or decided on the KHL, something like that. So he sent back, _Sorry for what?_

_Sorry for spells. Did not know would bring over. Sorry._

Sidney stared at the phone like it could explain what had happened. And then he figured it out and started dialing. 

"Yeh." Beau sounded half asleep.

"Did you ask Geno if he cast the spells?"

"Yeah. Um, was I not supposed to?" 

Sidney wanted to go back to his old, bad habit of grinding his teeth. "What exactly did you tell him?" he gritted out. 

"Just asked if he cast the spells on you, because you were a little weirded out by all the stuff you were seeing. Oh, and I said he must be an awesome witch. And I asked him if Metal girls are hot. Nothing bad, Sidney, I swear."

Sidney reminded himself that if he drove over to Huntington Beach to throttle Beau, his best-case scenario was having to break in another rookie next year. Instead, he just said, "Next time, _ask me_ before you tell anyone something about me."

"I would have!" Beau protested. "I totally know not to tell strangers or reporters anything. But he's team. He's _Geno_. I didn't think you'd mind."

And that was - that was fair, actually. If it hadn't been for the ridiculous awkwardness of last season, and the really stupid way Sidney had left things with Geno - well, he probably wouldn't have minded nearly so much. And Beau couldn't have known. 

"Yeah, no, but just - it's always better to ask me first, okay?" Sidney said. 

"Yeah, sure, definitely." Beau sounded relieved. "Sorry, Sidney."

So that answered that question. 

Sidney just had to decide what to do about Geno, now. 

In the end, he went for a run, partly to stop thinking, partly to punish himself _for_ thinking. Not incredibly advisable outdoors, but not stupid, either. His rental was oceanfront, so he went down the Strand and joined the other late night runners. 

The other late-night runners didn't notice the weird glow from the ocean, though, probably. Sidney couldn't focus on the run; he was too busy glancing over, hoping the ocean would go back to normal. 

It didn't. It kept right on glowing. In the end, Sidney stopped and tapped out a quick text to Beau: _Why is the ocean glowing?_

Beau's response came back almost immediately: _WOOOOOO U ROCK BRO_. 

Sidney shook his head and kept running. Ten minutes later, a giant tentacle came out of the ocean and waved around for a minute or two before slipping back under the waves. Sidney texted Beau: _Now there's a giant tentacle out there_.

Beau responded: _BEAUTY_. 

Sidney rolled his eyes and checked his watch. Andy would probably be asleep already, and he kept his phone on all night - Sidney couldn't text him and take the risk of waking him up. And he had Soledad's phone number, but he didn't want to bother her unless it was an emergency. She probably had shit to do.

He was only a quarter of the way through the run he'd planned, but he couldn't really imagine trying to explain to the team - or, god, the press and the fans - that he wouldn't be starting the season on time thanks to injuries received from a giant tentacle. Sidney turned around and ran home. 

He needed a guide. Someone who understood this new, weird world, and who would take Sidney's texts and not ever be high and make at least marginal sense most of the time. 

He texted Geno: _Just went for a run. Ocean was glowing and a giant tentacle came out. Should I be worried?_

Two minutes later, Sidney's phone rang. Geno seemed out of breath when he said, "You hear singing?"

Sidney blinked. "What?"

"When you run near mermaid city, you hear singing?"

"No. Just - just the tentacle." For some reason, it sounded worse when he said it out loud. 

Geno sighed in relief. "Okay, then. No problems."

Sidney reached up to rub his temples. He was now in a world where giant tentacles were no big deal, but singing was a sign of the end times or something. "Why shouldn't I hear singing?"

"They sing to you, run away," Geno said. "Things get - weird, you stay. Mermaids maybe take you."

Sidney tried to think of something to say and failed. 

After an awkward silence, Geno said, "I should get Mama to cast magic protection on you, maybe?"

"What? Why?"

"If you can see it, can affect you." Even over long distance, he sounded hangdog. "Did not mean to make more danger for you. Was trying to help."

Sidney didn't even know what to say to that. Finally he just said, "It's okay, Geno."

He showered and went to bed and determinedly did _not_ think about mermaids, or singing, or Geno casting spells on him, or Geno wanting - wanting to protect him. 

Or he tried not to, anyway. 

~

The next day, Sidney walked to the Promenade for lunch. He was used to focusing inward, avoiding eyes - it didn't always work, even in LA, but it did usually help people get that he wanted to be left alone.

Just, usually he was trying to avoid fans. Not - well. Other stuff. 

A belt caught his eye as he walked up to his usual lunch spot, so Sidney ducked in. "How can I help you, sir?" a deep, growly voice said. 

Sidney looked over. And then up. Way up. The salesman was so tall his head brushed the ceiling, and he was sort of hunched over a little bit. When he caught Sidney looking up at him, the guy made a quick, graceful motion with his huge, meaty hand - three wiggly fingers moving up and down. Sidney couldn't help wanting to see this guy in the net.

Sidney hesitated for a second, then did his palm-knock thing. The salesman nodded respectfully and smiled, showing off an incredible number of large, jutting teeth. "What can I show you today?"

And after that, it was an ordinary shopping experience. Sidney left feeling so proud of himself that he texted Geno while he was waiting for his lunch to come: _Bought a belt from a giant today._

Geno texted back: _Giant????!!!! Really????_

_I don't know if he was really a giant, but he was maybe nine feet tall and had huge long arms and kind of a weird face. Lots of teeth._

_Troll. Not see often!!! He nice?_

_I was buying a $300 belt from him._

_So he nice. )))))_

At that point, Sidney's lunch came, and he started eating. After a while, he started to feel - weird. Scratchy. Sidney glanced around, looking for anything weird, and - saw something, of course. An Asian woman sitting two tables away was staring fixedly at him. 

She had weird facepaint on. And an extra pair of ears on top of her head. As Sidney watched, one of them flicked in irritation. Sidney nodded at her, but she didn't make a move in return. 

She didn't stop staring, either. Sidney ate his lunch a little faster, all the time feeling a strange crackling sensation along his skin, like he was in an area dangerously full of electricity. 

Halfway through, it got to be too much; Sidney asked for the check and a to-go box. While he waited, he texted Geno: _Asian woman, little pointy ears on top of her head, red stripes on her face, won't stop staring._

Geno texted back: _Kitsune-tsuki. She maybe okay, but maybe act weird._

Sidney nodded to himself, dumped some money on the table, and took off; he'd pick up another lunch somewhere else. 

As he turned to go, the kitsune-tsuki made a weird, high-pitched shrieking noise. Sidney flinched and walked briskly away, back down the Promenade. It was five minutes before he realized that most of the people on the Promenade and in the restaurant hadn't reacted at all, but maybe five percent had covered their ears, or winced, or jerked upright. 

Sidney felt suddenly surrounded by dangers he didn't know and couldn't understand. He gave up on buying another lunch and basically bolted back to his condo. 

He had to get a handle on this shit, before he ran into something that really caused trouble. 

~

After he got back home and made himself a slapped-together lunch, he texted Geno: _Is there some kind of book for this shit?_

Geno sent back: _For what?????_

_For all of it. There's too much I don't know. It's dangerous. There must be a way to learn this._

It took a while for Geno's next text to come in, and it was not helpful: _Even Mama not know of textbook you can get. Sorry, Sid. ((((_

Sidney tapped his fingers on the tabletop and ate his sandwich. Then he sent: _But it'd be better in the east, right?_

_Yes! Not so many there._

Sidney thought about it all through his afternoon workout. At the end, he asked Andy, "Hey, are you willing to take this to Halifax?"

Andy hesitated, thinking about it. Then he made an a-ha type face. "Too much weird stuff here?"

"Too much I don't know, anyway. I think I need to work into this slower."

Andy nodded once, decisively. "Yeah, sure. You talk to Matt, I'll get working on my end of things."

And that was it. Two days later, Sidney called and texted the people who needed to know, and then he got on the plane for the epic trip to Halifax. 

It was weird to think of going home as fleeing, but it kind of was.


	3. Rainbow Syrup Heart

When he turned on his phone in Toronto, there was a text from Geno waiting for him: _In Halifax, many selkies. Watch out!!!!!_

Shit. Sidney texted back: _Selkies?_

_Y y y y! Cute cute babies._

...That didn't really go with the watch out part, Sidney thought, and then he remembered how excited Geno got about lion cubs and baby orcas and newborn crocodiles. 

_Do the adults eat people?_

_NO!!!! Sid!!!!! Just - like people sometimes. Don’t kiss one!_

Sidney blinked at his phone for a while before he finally texted back:

_Okay. I won't kiss one._

Then he went to get a car to his hotel. 

~

Home brought the usual range of problems - everyone _everywhere_ recognizing him, certain cousins, his father - and the usual range of great stuff - Taylor, constant hockey. Sidney opened his house, which he'd remembered to have cleaned before he arrived, checked through it, and then stood in the kitchen, hesitating. 

Grocery shopping anywhere in Nova Scotia - well, Canada, really - was hard. Ordering delivery food was even harder - the delivery guys tended to make a lot of jokes about his diet, and more than once he'd seen one taking pictures of his house afterward. 

So grocery shopping it was. Sidney made a list, then made sure it was all things he'd be okay with the entire world seeing, just in case someone decided to Instagram a picture of his cart.

Mostly people were nice about it - he took a lot of pictures with kids, signed some autographs, and answered a few questions, but no one followed him creepily around the store or asked him for some of his hair or anything. 

Then, when Sidney was putting groceries into his car, a woman came up to him. He thought she was homeless at first, all shaggy hair and strange rough clothes, but then he blinked and she had artfully arranged hair and a normal dress on. 

She reached a hand out and made a weird noise in the back of her throat, sort of like moaning.

"Uh, hi," Sidney said cautiously, and did his Clan sign. 

She moaned again. 

"Um, can I help you?" Sidney tried. 

She reached out again - her fingers were webbed, he noticed - and gestured at the back of his car. Where he was putting the food bags. 

"Are you hungry?" Sidney asked. "Do you need food?"

"Ahhhhhhhh," she said, nodding emphatically, opening her mouth to reveal strange, sharp-looking teeth. 

Sidney blinked, then handed her a grocery bag. Whatever was in it, he could replace. She rooted through it, pulled out the wrapped package of salmon he'd bought, and nodded again. "Ahhhhhhh," she said, offering him the bag back. 

Sidney took it and put it in the back of his Range Rover, and when he looked up again, she was gone.

Fucking _weird_.

"I don't know about selkies," Geno said on the phone later, sounding more worried than the exchange with the homeless lady warranted. "We not have them here."

"Well, we have an assload in Nova Scotia, that's for damn sure," Sidney said, and paused to leave room for the inevitable comment about his ass. 

Geno didn't make it, a sure indication of just how worried he really was; Geno liked joking about Sid's ass even more than the next hockey player. Instead, Geno said, "You think she pretty. Sometimes people get fascination, they want to marry one. Bad for both."

"I thought you didn't know about selkies."

"Read. In books."

Sidney sat bolt upright in his bed. "There's _books_? I've been going crazy not knowing this shit and I fucking _asked_ you about books and you said there weren't any!"

Geno's pause seemed distinctly embarrassed. "Is -" Geno hesitated for so long Sidney was afraid he'd stop talking altogether. "You wanted textbook, or maybe book like history, but these not like that."

"Right, but I don't care what it's like, as long as it teaches me what I need to know."

"Books for us - they usually books for normal, too. So mostly fiction. Information books very rare, hard to get. Cannot print. Have to be copied by hand. Fiction books easy to write, easy to print, can sell to anyone, so easy-to-get books are fiction."

Sidney considered this. "So they're fiction to - to people who don't know -" he still felt weird about calling them 'normals' "- but to us they're accurate?"

"Kind of. Authors take, they make it good for story instead of fact, sometimes. Better to read if you already know some, not when brand-new baby in Other world."

Sidney sighed. "Can't anything ever be _simple_ here?" 

He meant it rhetorically, but Geno responded seriously. "No. Mama says that because we got made before rules did."

"Great." The thing was, though - Sidney still wanted those books. Even if they were mostly fiction, even if he couldn't figure out which parts were which. He wanted something besides Geno's voice on the other end of the line that demonstrated - well, that he wasn't crazy. That this was, by some people's definition, normal. "Can I have the titles anyway?"

"Most of the ones I read in Russian," Geno said. 

Sidney could tell he was evading the question. "You just said Russia doesn't have selkies. Did someone really write in Russian about something you don't have?"

"Selkie book in English," Geno said hesitantly. 

"And the title is -?"

"I not read good in English."

"If it's a picture book, even better. Geno, come _on_."

"It called _Velvet Ocean's Embrace_ ," Geno said. 

Sidney wrote down the title. "Great, thanks. So, how's training going? Did Kadar break you yet?"

"Almost break _him_ ," Geno said smugly, and the conversation moved on.

After they hung up, Sidney looked for the book on Amazon. The cover had a swooning lady standing in the ocean up to her waist, a man holding her in a really uncomfortable pose, her dress slipping off her shoulder. So that was probably why Geno was embarrassed. Sidney had no problems reading it, but he didn't want it on his personal Amazon account where it could maybe hit Deadspin. He signed into the one his business manager had set up for him. Sending it to a reshipping place would add a few days, which sucked, but it was what it was. 

He submitted the order, and then he noticed that the author had a whole _series_ of books, all of which sounded distinctly Other - _The Caress of the Zephyr, Enveloped by Darkness, The Elf King's Kiss_. And he noticed, also, that he could buy electronic copies, download them, and read them immediately.

Two hours later, he tapped out a text to Geno:

_Do vampires really bring you to the throes of ecstasy with a single searing touch?_

Geno's text came in at two his time:

_NO!!!!!! This why I say NOT READ YET. You bad at listen. ((((_

A few seconds later, Geno added:

_You like book????? Sexy????? ))))))_

Sidney hesitated over the keypad for a long time before typing:

_She's not doing it for me. He's okay, though._

He felt his pulse kick up as he clicked send, which was stupid. Geno _knew_ he liked guys, they'd done that - that thing that they only sort of did. It wasn't going to be news to him. Still, Sidney held his phone, waiting, until Geno responded a minute later:

_HE VAMPIRE, SID. HE DEAD. GROSS!!!!!!!!_

Sidney laughed and typed back:

_Yeah, he's not really what I'm looking for._

Geno sent:

_YYYY vampire terrible at hockey._

And Sidney closed with:

_Exactly._

He was suddenly, painfully tempted. He typed:

;-)

He erased it, then typed it again. He stared at the winky face and tried to convince himself that wasn't over the line, that he could do this. "Don't be a punk," he finally said out loud, and sent it. 

~

Sidney saw selkies _everywhere_. He hadn't been lying at all when he said Nova Scotia had an assload of them, and they were all so different. There were the homeless wandering lost ones, but there were others, too. He went out to dinner with Taylor like they always did, and two tables down was a human guy, his gorgeous wife, and their two adorable kids. Except the wife and both the kids were selkies. 

That made the family a whole lot less cute. What he'd sort of half-learned from Geno and The Velvet Ocean's Embrace made him pretty sure that the woman and the kids would go back to the sea someday, and then the guy would be alone. 

And that would suck. He'd have to be happy for his family, that they were off where they wanted to be, but at the same time, he couldn't join them, he couldn't see them, he'd just be - without them. 

Sidney swallowed hard, even though their food hadn't come yet. When he looked over, Taylor was watching him, and she looked so _grown up_ , and she looked - knowing. 

"They're cute kids," she said. 

"Yeah."

"You know, you're like, still kind of young, and you're okay at hockey. You'll probably find someone to have kids with someday."

"Thanks," Sidney said, and he was trying hard to sound disapproving, but he knew he was also smiling, too big to hide. "It's great having such a supportive baby sister," he said in his media voice. "I really appreciate what you contribute to the family."

Taylor kicked him under the table. 

~

More and more, Sidney found himself flinching away from the human-selkie families. He still fed the homeless ones - no one looked twice at him buying a ton of fish, after all - but he didn't talk to them or look at them. 

One night, pretty late, he called Geno, partly because he could talk to him about it, and partly just because - he missed Geno more as the summer went on. "Is there any way for a human to turn _into_ a selkie?" he asked. 

Geno said, "Do I need come there?" He sounded scared. "I tell you, _never kiss_!" Geno's speech had gotten rough in the way it always did when he was upset or scared.

"No! No, don't worry, it's not - I just think it's kind of awful," Sidney said. "The human men who look like they love their wives and kids, but they'll go back to being seals, and then the guys will be just alone." He hesitated, because this was his least favorite part, before adding, "Anywhere there's ocean, you find guys walking out there, looking out."

Geno was quiet for a long time before he said, "Lonely."

"Yeah."

"There maybe spells to be seal," Geno said. "But would have big consequences. Mama wouldn't do."

"Spells have consequences?" They'd never really talked about spell casting, beyond the first awkward discussion of the spells on Sidney. 

"Some more than others, but yes, all spells have."

"So - so what were the consequences for the spells you cast on me?"

Geno hesitated. "For Mama, tired, gray hairs, eat lots. For me, for spells I cast on you - not sure."

"How can you not be sure?" 

"Not paid yet."

"But you must have known when you cast them what the consequences would be, because if you didn't - and you cast them _anyway_ -" Sidney couldn't even believe it, how reckless that would be. 

"I didn't know. I cast anyway." Geno's voice got a little rougher. "You go down on ice, and I think - I not think. Just, just tired of everything happen to you, always hurt. I come home, call Mama, say I need spells to protect."

"And she _let_ you?"

"She ask questions, lots questions," Geno said, sounding a little amused. "She call me idiot three, four times. But, yes, she tell me how."

Sidney felt his pulse pick up, because that was _insane_. "Geno! You don't know what you paid? What if _your_ luck gets bad? What if you get hurt a lot?"

Geno said, very quietly, "Worth it."

"That's - no. No, it _wouldn't_ be worth it." Sidney tried to find the words to make it clear just how much it wouldn't be, and failed. 

"I say is. So is."

And that was it. Geno wouldn't be convinced otherwise. 

He hung up the phone and texted Matt:

_Geno is the most stubborn person on the planet._

Matt texted back:

_hahahaha good one buddy_

Sidney had the worst friends in the world.

~

Taylor showed up at his house the next morning on her bike. "Mom and dad are being jerks," she said. "I'm hiding. Can I hide here?"

Sidney winced. Her college choice was a constant point of discussion in the family now, and their parents - well. Sometimes they pushed too hard. "You still have time to decide, and you should go wherever _you_ want to go," Sidney said, repeating the only statement he was willing to make on the matter.

"I know, I know," she said. "Stop using the press voice on me."

"I just don't want to tell you what to do," Sidney said, as sincerely as he could.

Taylor shrugged and smiled, the kind of forced smile he hated to see on her. "I know. That's why I'm here. Let's - do something."

They worked on her goaltending for a while, then they headed out to the lake, where Sidney demonstrated his latest sonar acquisition and Taylor made fun of him and pretended to be a giant fish. It was a good day, and it left him feeling a little more balanced, a little more connected to the world he'd lived in all his life. There was nothing weird or Other about the day at all. 

They made dinner together, Sidney grilling steak and veggies and Taylor whipping the cream for the berries, and ate it outside on the deck. Afterwards, Taylor said, "Why did you come home this summer?"

"I just needed to," Sidney said. He couldn't really explain it to her, after all, and if he did, she wouldn't even remember it. 

"I thought you might have a big announcement," Taylor said. "But no?"

"Announcement about what?"

Taylor shook her head. 

"I'm just the same old me," Sidney said. "I'm not any different."

Taylor chewed her lip, her brows furrowed. Then she said, "Not exactly."

Sidney thought about that for a long time after she went home. Mostly, he thought about - he wondered if - maybe someday he could find a way to ask Taylor if she wanted to come over, be Other. She'd probably take to the Other world pretty naturally, better than Sidney had, and he'd - well, he'd like to show it to her, once he knew he could make it safe. 

~

Sidney dialed Geno that night without really thinking about it. It was just what he did. 

"How are selkies?" Geno asked, and Sidney realized he hadn't seen anything Other all day.

"Actually, I spent the day with Taylor, at the lake. No selkies. No Other stuff at all."

"You," Geno pointed out.

Sidney blinked in surprise a few times. "I don't think I count, though. I'm not - I'm not _real_ Other. I'm like the Other version of a guy on a PTO for the night because the starting goalie has food poisoning."

"You real," Geno said confidently. "You see us, you talk to us, you almost get eaten by us. That's real. And forever, not just one night only."

Sidney had never - he thought of Geno as someone who belonged to _his_ world: North America, the NHL, the English language.

But maybe it was more that now Sidney belonged to his. 

"You really didn't think this through at all, did you," Sidney said. He was laughing, because it was kind of funny, but it was also - not. "You paid a price and you don't know what it is, and you put me in your world and you didn't expect to, and I'm here _forever_."

Geno was silent for a minute, and then he said, "Didn't think. Always my problem, right? Get upset, don't think. Not sorry, though."

"This is way more than four minutes in the box."

"If you not sorry, I'm not sorry," Geno repeated firmly. 

Sidney had no idea why that made him feel so good. 

~

The next morning, Sidney had a run scheduled. He groaned a little when he saw it, then deliberately drove to the shore. He hadn't been running for very long before he spotted one of the men that was always out here, staring out to sea. He slowed to a stop without meaning to. 

"Morning," the man said, never taking his eyes off the waves. 

"Morning," Sidney said, coming to a stop. "Find what you're looking for?"

"Not today," the man said. "Morning is a good time, though - morning and evening."

"Do they ever come back?" Sidney asked. He knew he probably shouldn't, but he just - he needed to know.

The man glanced over at Sidney, surprised, before he turned his gaze back to the ocean. "Sometimes. I think so," he said. He hesitated for a beat before continuing, "If you're - it's worth it. This part is hard, but it's worth it."

Sidney nodded and stood there, trying to figure out what to say next. After a few minutes, he settled on the politely neutral, "I hope you find what you're looking for." The man nodded, and Sidney started running again. 

He didn't even end up hating the run that much, mostly because he was distracted, trying to figure out how it could be worth it to lose your entire family, just because you belonged in a different world then they did. 

He kept thinking back on that night he'd almost - not exactly - well, definitely made out with Geno, anyway. Back then, this could have been a problem. Geno was Other, and Sidney hadn't been. But Geno had, totally without meaning to, taken that problem away. 

Sidney wondered if Geno still wanted something like that. And he was horribly sure there was no way to know but to ask. 

~

As soon as Sidney picked up the phone, his heart started pounding like he was about to play a game, or enter a race, or - or do something else he could _win_.

"Not about winning," he muttered to himself while the phone rang. It helped about as much as when his mother used to say it to him. 

"You meet vampire lover today?" Geno said. 

Sidney blushed. He couldn't really help it, even though it wasn't fair - Geno was the one who had gotten him started on the Deep Magic series, so it wasn't like he could exactly make fun. "I'm not reading the vampire one anymore," Sidney said as loftily as he could. 

"You on mermaid now?"

"No, the, uh. I'm reading The Love Curse," Sidney said, and for some reason _that_ was embarrassing, too. 

"Witches not like that," Geno said instantly. "We mostly don't curse like that. And, uh, magic not that interesting."

"You don't power your spells with sexual tension?" Sidney said.

Geno hesitated for a second, then said, "No. Mostly no."

Sidney blinked, thinking about the scene in The Love Curse where Serena kissed Phospher and felt her magic build within her to an almost unbearable peak. "Mostly no?" 

"Very rare," Geno said firmly. "Maybe even only a rumor."

Sidney said, involuntarily, "Oh," and even he could tell he sounded disappointed. He swallowed hard, because intentional or not, he really wasn't going to get a better opening than that. "I was hoping for," for _what_ , damn it, Sidney had no clue what to say next, "I was hoping for a story."

"Read book," Geno advised him. "Real magic not that sexy."

Sidney blinked. Was that a brush-off?

"You want dirty stories, I tell you lots, but they not magical," Geno added.

Or maybe it was just Geno not picking up on nuances because Sidney was speaking English. Sidney mentally gave up on subtlety, which wasn't really his strength, anyway. "Okay. When?"

Geno hesitated. "For me tell dirty stories?"

"Yeah."

Geno took a quick breath and said, "Anytime. Come visit, I tell you all you want. Anytime, Sid."

Sidney's whole body went hot. "Okay," he said, and then cleared his throat and started again. "Okay. I'm back in Pittsburgh on September fourth."

"Back on second," Geno said. "Come over when you want."

That was it. Sidney was pretty sure that was it, anyway. Geno was still interested and Sidney just had to show up. He hoped. 

The last two weeks of summer passed _really_ slowly. 

~

Sidney couldn't keep still on the plane. He drummed his fingers on the seat rest, bounced his knee, tapped his heel against the bottom of the seat. His seatmate visibly hated him before they'd reached cruising altitude, but he couldn't help it. 

He didn't want to articulate, even to himself, exactly what he was hoping for. He tried to read - he'd even saved The Touch of Deep Forest for the plane ride - but he couldn't focus. He kept thinking about Geno, about the way his voice had sounded the last time they talked. 

And then, inevitably, he started thinking about the way Geno's voice had sounded the last time they'd _kissed_. About Geno pushing him down on the couch, kissing him so much Sidney almost forgot his rule. Sidney'd finally gotten up the willpower to stop, just a few minutes before he'd have broken the rule and ruined everything, and he'd had to explain to Geno, his voice rough, wanting nothing more than Geno's hands _back on him_.

"Okay, Sid," Geno had said. "No getting off before game. Tomorrow night?"

Sidney had agreed, and Geno had kissed him one more time before Sidney basically ran out the door. 

And then they'd played the Islanders. 

In a way, it had been unfinished business this whole time - unfinished business that led to Candy, and the weirdness in LA, and all the selkies. And now Sidney was heading back to Pittsburgh to - finish it? Maybe. Sidney wasn't sure. 

Next to him, his seatmate huffed so loudly Sidney could hear it even over the plane's engines, and reached into his bag for headphones. Sidney did the same, pulling out his iPad to try to read. 

He mostly failed. It was hard to focus on Daphne's love affair, for some reason. He kept thinking about Geno - about Geno touching him, kissing him, about what it would be like when Sidney didn't have to make him stop. 

Eventually, he closed his eyes, leaned back in the seat, and ran through games in his head. He hadn't jerked off in a bathroom on an airplane since he was nineteen. He wasn't breaking that record now. 

~

Sidney's routine when he landed in Pittsburgh was always the same: he went home first. He wasn't about to change that, especially not when he had so many giant, heavy bags of gear and clothes and all the crap that he carted around all summer. 

He was met by a driver, as usual, and the ride back to Sewickley was just like always. Until the car turned into Mario's drive, and Sidney saw her: Candy was standing in the front yard, staring fiercely at the car like she _knew_ Sidney was in there. Sidney found himself grinning helplessly. 

The driver helped him with his bags, of course, and Sidney couldn’t exactly greet Candy while he was there. He went inside to drop everything off - the house was cool and quiet, everyone out somewhere. 

As soon as the car was gone, Sidney went over to her. 

"Hey," he said. 

She snorted and flicked an ear back. 

"Aw, hey, don't be mad," Sidney said. "I had to go, but I'm back now, and I'll be around for a whole season." He felt his smile getting even wider, because he was getting it _all_ back: hockey, Geno, _and_ his unicorn. 

Candy snorted again. She was pointedly looking over his shoulder, all four hooves braced firmly. 

"Well, I brought you something." He'd passed one of the little stores in the Toronto airport during his layover and stopped immediately, his mind already back in Pittsburgh. He opened his carry-on and pulled out a big package of peanut butter cups. 

Candy glanced over at him, glanced away, and then glanced back. Her nostrils flared, and she stepped towards Sidney, clearly interested. He opened the package and she took the first one before he could get the paper off it. 

"I missed you, too," he said, while she ate in her usual gross drippy way. He reached over to scratch her between her shoulders, the way she liked. "Hey, you're _filthy_ ," he said. She had smears of dirt everywhere and her mane and tail were all tangled. It was going to take forever to get her clean. 

She blew out a wad of slobber. 

"Well, _I_ care," Sidney said. "Wait here."

He got as far as the front door before he realized something. "I only ever saw you at night before," he said. "I thought you only _existed_ at night." 

She snorted derisively, and Sidney realized she was right. Last season, he'd thought of her as some kind of - phantasm or spirit, something that faded in and out, not something solidly real. But she was. Like the selkies and their human husbands, and the troll salesman, and his neighbor fairies in Santa Monica. So of course she was visible during the day. 

He just hadn't been able to see her then. 

"Huh," he said. Then he headed on into the house. He needed his grooming kit; he had a unicorn to clean. 

~

He waited at the house until Mario and Nathalie came back, hugged him, and asked him about his summer. Then he waited around a little longer, until he realized he was being a coward. That was bullshit; he wasn't a coward, and he could fucking do this. 

That thought carried him up to his room and through dialing Geno. Once the phone started ringing, everything felt so normal that it wasn't until Geno picked up the phone that he remembered: Geno was in the same country, the same _city_ as he was; he could see Geno in twenty minutes if he wanted to. 

"Hello?" Geno repeated. "Sid, you call just to breathe at me?"

"Hi," Sidney said. He stalled out for a second, wondering how to put it, but finally went with, "I was wondering if I could come by? Like we talked about?"

"Yes," Geno said. And that was it. Sidney headed downstairs. He didn't see anyone on the way, which he was grateful for, but his luck ran out when he backed his car out of the garage. Candy was there, waiting for him on the lawn, and she looked kind of pissed off. Sidney put on the parking brake and got out. 

"I'm just going to visit a friend. I won't even be -" and then Sidney blushed, hard, because if things went right, maybe he _would_ be gone for the night. "I swear, I'll be back. Probably tonight. The latest, tomorrow."

Candy nosed at all of his pockets, but she seemed to accept that he hadn't brought anything. She slobbered a bunch all over his hoodie - "Thanks for _that_ ," Sidney told her - and then trotted off, casually jumping the fence on her way. 

Sidney got back into the car and drove over to Geno's. The encounter with Candy had focused him a little, but by the time he got to Geno's house, he found himself tensing up. The last time he'd been here, they'd been on the brink of a perfect month, and they'd made out on Geno's couch until Sidney had forced himself to do the world's most uncomfortable and distracted drive home. 

At least this time - well, if he wanted to stay, if Geno wanted him to, he could. 

Sidney took a deep breath and got out of the car. 

Geno met him at the door, all smiles, wearing bright blue shorts and a hideous green t-shirt with Seventeen Crest in sparkly writing on it. He wrapped his arms around Sidney and said, "Sid! Ready to take on the world?"

"Yeah," Sidney said, hugging back. When he pulled away, he saw, over Geno's shoulder - 

"Holy _fuck_ ," Sidney said. "Is that Jeffrey?" It looked just like Jeffrey, except for the part where he was bigger - bigger than Candy, even - and had wings, giant feathery _wings_. 

"Yes," Geno said, laughing. "Jeffrey have good parents, just like me." Jeffrey walked carefully up to Sidney - Jesus, he had to be about four feet high - and wagged his tail cautiously, hopefully. Sidney scritched him around the ears, and Jeffrey turned back into the gamboling, silly dog he'd always been, wagging so hard his whole hind quarters shook and dancing around. He kept partly opening his wings, too. Sidney suddenly understood why the house Geno was building had such a huge entryway, and why this one had nothing at all near the door. 

Sidney found himself grinning helplessly at Jeffrey. "You look different, but you're _exactly the same_ ," he said. When he looked up, he caught Geno watching him, smiling, and the moment stretched out. Sidney wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure what, and after a minute Geno cleared his throat. 

"Come in, sit down, have drink, tell me about summer," Geno said. Five minutes later Sidney was sitting on the couch with a big glass of water, Geno on a recliner nearby. It wasn't exactly how he'd wanted things to go, but probably there had to be some talking, even if that wasn't all they did. 

"You know how my summer went," Sidney pointed out. "I was on the phone to you all the time, asking about all the weird shit I was seeing."

Geno looked abashed. "Sorry, Sid," he said, making at least the fifteenth apology. Maybe the fiftieth.

Sidney considered. "Actually, I don't mind," he said.

Geno looked up at him, eyes wide.

"It's weird, but. What isn't?" Sidney shrugged. "And I got - I got stuff out of it. Good stuff. So. It would have been nice to know I wasn't _crazy_ when it started, but I'm over it." He hesitated and then went for it. "Anyway, I didn't come over here to hear you apologize again. I -" he hesitated. 

"Why you come?" Geno prompted him. 

"You owe me stories," Sidney said. 

Geno studied him carefully, then said, "Last time you here was a little different. Good, though. You just want stories?"

Sidney felt the relief all over his body: yes, this was it, they were still on the same page. "No," he said. "I want to pick up where we left off."

Geno came over, picked Sidney's drink out of his hands, and put it carefully on the table. He sat next to Sidney, his movements careful and controlled; Sidney just watched, waiting, his breathing already getting quicker. "Yes?" Geno said, looking at him. 

"Yes," Sidney said firmly, and Geno kissed him. 

The last time, it had been almost too fast to think about; this time, Geno moved slowly, just pressing his lips against Sidney's for a moment, then pulling back to look at him before moving in for another kiss. Sidney felt stiff, tense, like he didn't know exactly what to do, and he kissed back kind of tentatively, trying to figure out how to get back to the feeling he'd had last time. 

Geno made a quiet noise, reached up, and wrapped his hands around Sidney's head, gently angling it, and Sidney liked that, the feeling of it, like Geno was coaching him. He followed Geno's guidance, and it worked; then he opened his mouth against Geno's, and that worked better. Sidney felt his body relax, and Geno apparently decided that was an opening and went for it. 

Geno's mouth was warm and wet on his, and Geno kissed him for a minute before pulling back. "Okay?" he said, and Sidney didn't remember Geno being this _careful_ last time. 

"Yes," Sidney said, and Geno went back to kissing. 

A few more kisses, a few gentle strokes of Geno's tongue, and Sidney felt hot, like his body was flushing all over, and then Geno pulled back and bit his lower lip, just hard enough for Sidney to feel his teeth, and Sidney gasped and put his hands on Geno's shoulders, trying to hold him there, hold him in place, keep the feeling happening. 

But Sidney had done this before, he'd been breathless and grabbing at Geno's shoulders on this couch before, and he wanted more, wanted to move past this, suddenly sure that _that_ was the key to getting this right, to getting everything right. So he moved his hands down, slid them down to Geno's ass. Geno went, "Mmmmm," which seemed good, but he kept sucking on Sidney's tongue, and Sidney - Sidney wanted that, yes, but he wanted other stuff _more_. 

Geno's shirt wasn't tucked in or anything. It was easy, almost natural to push his hands underneath it and - god, Sidney liked this, just running his hands along Geno's back, his sides, feeling every breath, and he got lost in it. When he snapped back, Geno had pulled a few inches back and was watching him, smiling a little. "You like?" 

"Yeah," Sidney said. He was surprised to hear his own voice, rough and rusty. His mouth felt used - swollen and tender - and he licked his lips. Geno's eyes tracked the movement, and Sidney swallowed. 

Geno reached out and rubbed a finger over Sidney's lips, and Sidney reacted without thinking, licking at the tip of Geno's finger. Geno stilled, and Sidney took the opportunity to slide his mouth over Geno's finger, sucking, sliding up and down, teasing the tip with his tongue. Geno's gasp was all the encouragement Sidney needed; he sucked for a second more, then pulled off with a tiny popping noise. He looked up, but Geno was watching him, his lips parted, his eyes dark, so Sidney kept on, biting gently on the pad of Geno's finger, then nibbling his way down and licking the V between his fingers. 

"Sid," Geno breathed quietly, but when Sidney looked up, he said, "Don't stop."

So Sidney didn't. He wanted - he wanted to put his mouth on every part of Geno, but he was entirely willing to start here, with this. He sucked on each of Geno's fingers in turn, thinking about sucking on Geno's cock, imagining how it would feel, how it might taste, and then he finished with bites all around the edge of his hand, up to the inside of his wrist. When he licked there, and then scraped his teeth along the skin, Geno moaned and moved to straddle Sidney, pressing down on him, and - holy fuck, that was Geno's _cock_ , hard against Sidney's, and the realization sent a jolt through him. Sidney jerked his hips upward, and Geno moaned. 

Sidney felt another surge of heat at that, that he could make Geno feel something, make him feel good, make him _want_ , want as much as Sidney wanted. That wasn't something that had happened to Sidney before, and it was an amazing feeling, power and desperation combined. "I -" Sidney said. "I want -" but he wasn't sure what he wanted, just that he needed something. He rocked his hips against Geno again and made a totally unintentional noise, stunned at how good it felt. His dick was throbbing in his pants now, hard enough to hurt, but somehow that didn't matter. 

"Yeah," Geno said hoarsely, and pulled away. 

"No, wait," Sidney said, pulling him back down. 

Geno went, and he kissed Sidney once more, leading to another helpless jerk of Sidney's hips. Then he lifted his head long enough to say, "I think - I suck you?"

Sidney whimpered and said, "Yes, okay, yes, please."

Geno smiled and kissed him once more before slipping off Sidney's lap and down onto his knees. He kissed Sidney's dick through the cloth of his sweatpants and Sidney gasped. Then Geno breathed on him, hot enough to feel through two layers of cloth, and Sidney said, "Geno, _please_."

Geno tugged on the waistband of Sidney's pants, and Sidney lifted his hips and let Geno pull them off. He felt kind of exposed, naked on the couch, but Geno didn't let him feel that way for long; he came back and kissed the head of Sidney's dick. "Oh my _god_ ," Sidney said, stunned, and Geno smiled up at him before licking the length of Sidney's dick. Sidney wanted - he wanted Geno's mouth on his cock, he wanted it _immediately_ , even though he'd never really seen the point before.

And then he thought about what Andy had said, back in Santa Monica. About the unicorn. 

"Wait," Sidney gasped. Geno lifted his head, and Sidney said, "I haven't - I mean, not like - I've done _stuff_ , I'm not a virgin, but I've never done this, and - I have a unicorn."

Geno sat back on his heels, his face going surprised. "You have _unicorn_?"

"Yes, and - I want to, I really really want to, but - will doing that, um, mean she can't come near me anymore?"

Geno said, "Don't know. I never - unicorns rare. Really, really rare." He chewed on his lip. "I - could be. Not sure."

"Fuck," Sidney said, and let his head fall back on the couch, trying to make a choice, or just have a _thought_.

"What you do?"

Sidney tried to focus on Geno's words instead of his still insistently demanding dick. "What do you mean?"

"Before. You say you not a virgin, so - what you do?"

Sidney felt his cheeks going hot, but it was a reasonable question, so he stared up at the ceiling and made himself answer. "Um, I - you know. Kissing and, and hands, and, uh, dry humping, and I, I fucked a girl. Kind of. Pretty much." 

Geno nodded. "Good."

"Good?"

"Lots to work with." Sidney wanted to ask some questions, but Geno was standing up and taking off his clothes, and. And. Sidney couldn't say anything. All he could do was stare, stare at Geno's muscles working as he stretched and shifted, at his shoulders and pecs and abs, and then, as he kicked off his shorts and underwear, at his dick, hard and flushed and - _fuck_. Sidney wanted, he wasn't sure, he wanted to touch, he wanted to suck, but Geno pretty clearly had a plan, so he didn't reach out, just stayed on the couch and _wanted_. 

"Sid," Geno said. "Shirt off?"

Sidney scrambled to pull it off, and then Geno was guiding him down onto the couch, and lying down on top of him. Their dicks touched, and Sidney made a noise that was stupid and loud and he didn't even care. Geno rocked down against him once and then made an inquiring noise, and Sidney gasped, "Yes, I - yes." Geno smiled and set up a gentle pace, nowhere near fast enough, rubbing their dicks together just a little while Geno kissed him and kissed him and kissed him. 

When Geno pulled away for air, Sidney made a desperate, whining noise, and Geno said, "Patient."

"I've _been_ patient," Sidney snapped. "I've waited - do you know how long I've waited - and -" but he couldn't finish the sentence, because Geno was biting his neck. He started out gentle, and then got harder, sucking and mouthing at Sidney until Sidney was moaning helplessly and pressing his hips up, trying to get Geno moving faster, harder, _something_. Geno kept the same slow pace, though, apparently content to find every one of Sidney's weak points with his mouth, and it turned out Sidney was _made_ of weak points - his neck, his jaw, his ears. And then Geno supported all his weight with one hand so he could use the other on Sidney's nipples, and it was - he was close, and he wanted to come so much, and Geno was still just rocking against him like he didn't care if they stayed like this forever. Sidney slid his hands down Geno's back, down to his ass, and pressed down, held on while he rolled his hips up again and again and again, until he was gasping and whining and shaking. Geno finally got with the program, pushing down, hard and fast and exactly how Sidney needed it, and then he bit down on Sidney's neck and that was it, Sidney was coming between them. 

Geno slowed down but didn't stop until Sidney was done, and then he pulled his hips away. Sidney tried to pull him back down, but Geno shook his head and said, "I - I need -" and then he was reaching down between them. 

Which, _no_ , Sidney wanted to touch Geno, at least, and this was the thing he'd done the most. He said, "Wait, Geno, wait."

"Fuck," Geno said, but he waited while Sidney ran his hand through the mess on his stomach and wrapped his hand around Geno's dick. And this, oh god, it felt so good, hot and hard, and Geno responded to everything Sidney did, moaning and gasping and saying, "Yes, yes, harder, _yes_ ," until his body went tense and he came all over Sidney. "Fuck," Geno said again, this time slower, and then he looked at Sidney. "A unicorn?" he said. "Really?"

And Sidney could feel himself blushing, but he couldn't really manage to be embarrassed. His whole body felt good, every part of him, and he found himself just grinning at Geno. "I named her Candy," he said.

"Candy," Geno repeated, and collapsed back down on Sid, laughing so hard it shook his entire body and set Sidney to laughing, too. 

~

Sidney did end up staying the night, and sleeping in Geno's bed wasn't nearly as weird as he'd expected; he fell asleep after fifteen minutes, listening to Geno's heavy breaths, and slept the whole night long.

The next morning, Geno fed them eggs and bacon and toast, and he waited until Sidney was basically finished with his bacon before he said, "Where is unicorn?"

"Oh, she lives somewhere up near Mario's," Sidney said. 

" _Street_ unicorn?" 

Sidney stopped chewing and thought about it. "Huh. I - I don't know." He didn't like thinking about Candy homeless. Where did she sleep? He knew basically what she ate, but did she eat enough? Would she maybe like a - well, not a _better_ diet, because he knew her feelings about anything with actual nutritional value, but at least a more consistent one? He felt like a piece of shit for not considering this earlier. 

"Hey, is okay," Geno said, apparently having watched Sidney's thoughts play out on his face. "She okay." He made another face, one Sidney couldn't exactly interpret, then added, "Have never seen a unicorn." Oh, right; that was the same way he looked at the tigers in the zoo and that giraffe that time: like he wanted to hug an animal and couldn't.

Well, maybe he could hug Candy. "We can go meet her," Sidney offered. "But she's really slobbery and she only likes people if they have candy. Mostly chocolate with nuts in it."

Geno beamed at him. "We stop at store, buy _all_ candy."

Which was how, an hour later, Sidney found himself signing autographs at a Giant Eagle, while Geno carried two of their huge bags full of candy to the car. "What will you do with all the candy?" one of the little kids asked him, wide-eyed at the idea of being able to buy that much sugar. 

Sidney grinned at her. "Feed it to a unicorn," he said. 

She giggled, and her mom said, "Okay, kiddo, we should let Mr. Crosby go. I'm sure he has a lot to do."

"But - a picture?" the girl said hopefully. Sidney crouched down between her and her older brother, and hoped the _other_ two giant bags full of candy wouldn't make it into the frame. When Geno set out to bribe a unicorn, he really went all out.

~

As soon as they pulled up in front of Mario's house, Geno started looking around hopefully. Sidney said, "She wanders around a lot, especially on trash day." He'd never actually tried _calling_ her before, but as he stepped out of the car, he called, "Candy! Candy!"

Behind him, Geno said something hushed in Russian, and Sidney turned around. "Oh, _Candy_ ," he said, staring at her. She had black streaks all down one side and a visibly matted patch on her right front - thigh, or whatever unicorns called their thighs. "What did you do?"

She nickered, and it sounded defensive to Sidney's ears.

"She roll in something," Geno said, very quietly. 

That sounded right. "Of course she did," Sidney said, rolling his eyes. He said to her, "We brought you candy, but first you _have to be clean_." 

He went upstairs for his grooming kit - _again_ \- and to change into Crocs, which he found dealt better with the inevitable flooding. When he came back out, he stopped in the doorway and just watched. Geno was standing very still, right next to the driver's side of the car; he hadn't moved at all. And Candy was walking up to him, slowly, a step at a time, her nostrils flared and her ears alert. Sidney didn't come out; he just stood there, transfixed. When Candy got maybe ten feet away from him, Geno started talking softly - Sidney couldn't make out words, but he could tell just from how Geno looked that it was in Russian. Candy's ears twitched forward, and she took another step, and another, and another. 

And then she put her nose in Geno's hand, snorfled once, and sneezed out a giant wad of unicorn goo all over Geno's shirt. Geno beamed like he'd been given a gift, and Sidney headed out into the yard. "Did you give her candy?" he said. 

Geno looked only slightly abashed. "Just small piece," he said. "She look hungry." 

Sidney turned to Candy. "He's a softie, but I'm not. Come on over to the hose and get that gunk off you." He was getting pretty good at cleaning her - he'd even learned to brush out as much as he could _first_ , then turn the hose on her. And she was getting pretty good at getting clean, too, standing patiently under the hose and making quiet happy noises while she was brushed. 

Fifteen minutes later, Sidney had a clean, glowing unicorn, and only his feet were wet. Geno was liberally splashed and didn't look like he minded at all; he was scritching Candy right at the base of her mane, between her shoulders, and she looked hazy and happy, leaning against him solidly. Sidney fed her some candy, smiling helplessly as she snorfled down an entire handful of peanut M&Ms, whickering with interest. 

Geno looked up at Sidney and smiled, and it definitely wasn't the same kind of smile he gave to Candy. "She like me," he said.

"You gave her candy," Sidney pointed out. "And anyway, most animals like you."

"She like me," Geno repeated. "And I not at _all_ a virgin. Not even little bit."

Sidney blinked at that, and then blinked again, looking at Candy. "I thought unicorns -" he said, trailing off. 

"She very special unicorn," Geno said proudly. 

Sidney looked at her. "She can't keep living in the street, though," he said. "And I can't bring her into Mario's. I don't know how that would work, having a pet in there that they can't see." He glanced across the street, to where his house was - well. Nearly done. Really pretty close. 

Maybe he could pressure the contractors a little more than he had been. And get the decorator going. 

"She can live at my house," Geno offered. "Until yours is ready."

Sidney smiled at him. "Perfect. And I swear I'll have a place for her - well, maybe not this season, but definitely by next summer."

Geno nodded, looking content with that. And he kept looking at Sidney. And looking. And - "Oh," Sidney said, realizing. "We can - we can do _anything_."

Geno grinned. "Anyone home?" he said.

Sidney shook his head, feeling his whole body go hot. "I - no. Not right now. The kids are, um, they're at school, and Mario's at his office, and Nathalie - she's -" he broke off. "Want to come upstairs?"

"Want more than anything," Geno said, and followed Sidney in.

Sidney led the way up the stairs, his heart pounding, his body already flushing with heat - at the very least, he needed to work on this enough that he didn't start getting wound up as soon as sex got mentioned. 

"Practice," Sidney muttered, leading the way into his rooms. 

Geno caught him from behind, turned him around, pressed him against the wall, and kissed him. "Practice all you want," he said when he came up for air. "Be coach, too, if you want."

Sidney made a face. "Now I'm imagining you with a whistle, calling for sex sprints."

Geno grinned at him. "Could be fun. But next time, okay?" He leaned in to kiss Sidney again, and finished this time by sucking on his tongue for a minute, then drawing his teeth across Sidney's lower lip. Sidney shivered, and Geno said, "Did not get what I wanted last time." He curved his hand around Sidney's cock through his trousers.

Even through two layers of fabric, Geno's hand was hot and heavy, and Sidney nodded his total agreement with Geno's plans. "You, you should definitely have what you want," he said. 

"Yes," Geno said, and kissed him again, pressing against him, pushing him into the wall. Sidney moaned, pressing back, loving that he couldn't move Geno. Geno smiled against his mouth - Sidney could _feel_ it, and that was strange and new and yet somehow entirely welcome - and pushed his thigh up against Sidney's cock, flexing the muscle. Sidney gasped and ground against him, and Geno pulled away just enough to smile at Sidney. He kept his hands against Sidney's shoulders but pulled his thigh away, and Sidney tried not to whine, he really did, but he wanted that pressure back on him, wanted it badly.

"So many things I can do to you," Geno said. "Lots you haven't done, want to do it all."

"Yes, okay, _yes_ ," Sidney said, arching up, trying to get to Geno. 

"Want to finger you," Geno said, intent but casual, like that was - like that was just something people did, something they could do, and Sidney couldn't help imagining it, Geno maybe holding him down on the bed with one hand, finger-fucking him, kissing him, all at the same time, and Sidney wasn't sure how it would feel but he wanted to find out _immediately_. "Want to lick you, suck you." He looked Sidney over carefully, at his squirming and panting and eagerness, and said, "You like me holding you down? Can hold you down so you only get what I give you. Hold you down, fuck you hard, make you wait for it."

" _Geno_ ," Sidney groaned. "I - yes, please - but, now?"

Geno shook his head. "Right now, I get blowjob," and he dropped to his knees. Sidney gasped, because - he'd actually done a lot of sex stuff in his life, a lot more than people ever thought, but most of it had been when he was younger, and they hadn't known what they were doing. 

Geno obviously knew what he was doing, and that was almost as hot as the sight of him on his knees. He put his hands on Sidney's hips and breathed through Sidney's pants, and Sidney remembered this from last time, and somehow that made it more urgent. His hips jerked up, or tried to, but they couldn't, _he_ couldn't, because Geno was holding him down, and he didn't even try to fight it, just waited, desperately, for Geno to do something.

Geno smiled up at him and pushed down his pants and boxers at the same time. Sidney gasped at the air on him and dug his hands into the wall so he wouldn't be tempted to reach for his dick, and Geno moved back in. He didn't waste time; he leaned in, wrapped his hand around the shaft of Sidney's cock - and Sidney wished he could see that better, Geno's big hand on his dick, but he didn't want that enough to interrupt what was going on - and then slid his mouth down over the head. 

Sidney made an embarrassingly loud noise. It was warm and wet and Sidney's dick had never been anywhere this good, ever, and he wanted to stay like this forever. Geno sucked him hard, sincerely, like he meant it, and when Sidney looked down, Geno's eyes were closed and Sidney couldn't really believe he got to _see_ this, and he could feel his orgasm, hovering around the edges, already close. 

And then Geno pulled off. 

"No, wait," Sidney said, his hips jerking reflexively. "I'm - I'm close, Geno, come on -"

"Not yet," Geno said, and stood up. "Bed."

Sidney kicked off his pants and boxers and followed him, his dick still throbbing. Geno pulled off his clothes, and Sidney followed suit, and then Geno was pushing Sidney down on the bed. 

The break had given him a chance to cool off, a little, but it'd also somehow left him sensitive; no matter where Geno touched him, it was like sparks on his skin, and it wasn't long before Sidney could hear himself gasping again. He reached out for Geno, pulled on him, and Geno followed, covering Sidney's body with his. Sidney moaned in relief and rocked up. After a minute or two, Geno said, "What you want next?"

Sidney just stared at him. He was basically past words and anyway he didn't know what he wanted. Geno leaned in and kissed him, then said against his lips, "I think you close."

"Yes," Sidney said, still moving against Geno. 

"How you want to come?"

Sidney knew he should find out what Geno wanted, but his patience and his filters were both gone somewhere, so he just answered: "You inside me."

Geno moaned and rocked back against Sidney helplessly. "Yes, good," he said, and pulled away. "Lube?"

"I - um -" Sidney didn't have any. "Shit."

Geno shook his head. "Is okay. What you use?"

Sidney reached into the nightstand and found the lotion, and Geno nodded. "This work," he said, and coated his fingers. 

Sidney couldn't help tensing up, but Geno just stroked his side with his clean hand and rubbed his slick fingers over, around, until it stopped feeling weird and started feeling good. "Okay," Sidney said, but Geno just kissed his thigh and kept on teasing him until Sidney said, "Geno, _now_."

"Such manners," Geno said, but he pressed his fingers in. 

Sidney was still adjusting to the sensation - having something inside him, having _Geno_ inside him - when the first shock of pleasure hit, and after that he didn't track very well. He just laid there and let Geno take him apart, first with his fingers, then with his mouth, grabbing at the sheets and Geno's head and his own thighs, making noises that would be embarrassing if he had any room left for embarrassment. He thought he might just stay like this, helpless and overwhelmed and loving it, and then he looked down and realized Geno was rubbing off on the bed. Geno liked this, he was getting off on it, he was that turned on by _doing this to Sidney_ , and that knowledge pushed Sidney over the edge. 

When he could focus again, Geno was above him. "What should I -" Sidney said, but Geno was already on top of him, kissing him desperately, rubbing his cock on Sidney's hip. "Wait," Sidney said.

Geno froze, and Sidney pushed on him. "Wait, let me -" he at least wanted to _touch_ Geno, wanted to feel him. Wanted to make him feel good.

Geno rolled over onto his back and Sidney moved with him. He meant to get Geno off as fast as he could, but then he got his hand on Geno's cock and - well, he really liked the way it felt, soft and hard at the same time, thick and full and _right_. He started stroking slowly, letting himself feel it, while Geno choked and swore in Russian. 

"You feel -" Sidney said, but there was no way to put it into words. 

"Sid," Geno moaned. He jerked his hips up, trying to drive the pace, trying to move Sidney faster

Sidney wasn't ready for that. He let his hand go slack and said, "Let me _do_ this."

Geno said something that was probably pretty insulting, but he stopped trying to force it. Sidney worked Geno's cock, slowly but steadily, watching in fascination as Geno moaned and shifted and shook. 

"Sid," Geno said. "Close. Close."

The head of Geno's cock was getting wet, and Sidney looked at it, his mouth watering. He bent over and licked it once, thoroughly, and Geno gasped like he'd been hit and came all over Sidney's chin and shoulder. 

At the same time, all the lights flashed, the TV turned on, and Sidney's alarm clock went off. Sidney blinked around in shock, too surprised to move. 

Geno sat up, face flushed dark red. "Sorry," he said, wiping at Sidney's face with a corner of the sheet. 

"I, no, that's - that's fine," Sidney said, and even as he said it he felt a hot curl in his gut that said it was a lot more than fine. "But -" he gestured to the blaring alarm and the TV showing baseball highlights. "What _happened_?

Geno flushed even darker. "I, uh." He shrugged. "Magic flare."

Sidney's jaw dropped. "You had _sex magic_? You told me it didn't work that way!"

"Thought it didn't!" Geno smiled at him, the full-on grin that made Sidney smile back, helplessly. "We learn something new every day."

Sidney, leaning over to shut off the alarm, started laughing. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, we really do."


	4. Epilogue: Your Love Is the Law

"Thanks for coming," Sidney said, letting Soledad in. She looked the same, except now the streaks in her hair were bright blue. 

"A legit commission with a free trip to Pittsburgh thrown in, how could I pass that up?" she said. She towed her rolling suitcase into the house after her. 

"This is Evgeni Malkin," Sidney said. "Geno, Soledad Cruz."

"Nice to meet you," Geno said, shaking her hand. 

She studied him with narrowed eyes, then started looking back and forth between the two of them very quickly. After a few seconds, she lifted her hands to form a triangle. Geno held out a palm and knocked on it; Sidney did, too, though he wasn't sure if he should or not, since she already knew. 

"You cast the spells!" she said to Geno. "All those wards, right?"

"Yes," Geno said, eyebrows raised. 

"Nice job," she said. "They're still holding up really well, look close to permanent. And - hmmm." She kind of stared into the middle distance for a second, then said, "Can you guys touch? Just a shoulder or something." Sidney reached out and put his hand on Geno's shoulder, and she screwed up her eyes and took a step backwards. "Whoa, okay, so the link between you is _really_ strong, maybe stop touching now so I can see other stuff?"

"Link?" Sidney said, dropping his hand down. 

"Oh, you know, it's like - well, remember the connection that allows a spellcaster to work on people he's close to?" She apparently saw Sidney's incomprehension, because she went on. "Okay, remember how I told you that to cast a spell on a person, you need a connection? Something physical will work, but then the strength of the spell depends largely on the recipient's emotional connection to the object. The better way, if you can do it, is to cast using _your_ emotional connection to the recipient - like, you can usually cast really well on your kid, or your parent, or your bff you've known since you were five. Sometimes, casting the spell will make the connection visible to people with the sight, like me. Which is what happened here. It's called a link."

"Oh." Sidney had been feeling pretty much like he had this Otherworld thing down, but apparently he still had a lot to learn. 

Geno was nodding, though. "This is what Mama say about spells."

"Does your mother have the sight?" 

"No, she head witch of Chelyabinsk."

"Cool." Soledad looked around. "Okay, so, what can I do for you?"

Sidney hesitated. "Um, maybe have a seat? We have some paperwork to go over first." 

Soledad raised her eyebrows, but she sat down. She took the news of the NDA well, just nodding and settling back to read over her copy. She was about halfway through when Jeffrey came in. 

"Told you, stay _in your room_ ," Geno said, reaching up to scratch under Jeffrey's chin. "Have guest! She maybe not like dogs."

Soledad glanced up from her reading. "I love - holy _fuck_. Is that a simargl?"

"Yes!" Geno beamed at her. "Well. He half-simargl. His mama a simargl, very big, very fierce, very sweet."

Soledad reached for her suitcase. "Um, I didn't know simargls could interbreed with domesticated species? Also, more ancient sources show them as horses with wings than dogs with wings - is this a fairly standard configuration for one?"

Geno reached up and covered Jeffrey's ears. "Shhhh, we not want him feel shy. Yes, some simargls look like horses, some look like dogs. Dog ones can be with dogs. Horse ones can be with horses." 

Soledad was taking notes in a notebook now. "Okay, and about how long do simargl crosses live?" 

Geno covered Jeffrey's ears more tightly and said, "Usually 70 to 100 years. He was Papa's friend before mine."

Sidney had a sudden, terrible thought. They'd left Jeffrey in the ground floor suite - what they called the animal room - until they could check on how Soledad felt about giant dogs with wings. So where was Candy, who they'd left back there with him? Sidney got up and headed to the kitchen.

And, yeah, there she was, carefully studying the padlock on the box they kept the candy in. She had dirt streaks on her shoulder, too, which was impressive, since there shouldn't be anything dirty inside the house. 

"Hey," Sidney said, and she came trotting over to him and snorfled wetly into his t-shirt. He patted her for a little bit, then said, "Do you want to come meet our guest? She can see you. And she was okay with Jeffrey so she'll probably be okay with you."

Candy nickered interestedly, so Sidney led her towards the living room, one hand on her neck. They got about four steps in when Candy froze, ears back, nostrils flaring, staring at Soledad with white-rimmed eyes.

Soledad stared back at her, eyes big. "I've - a unicorn. I've never seen one before. Are they usually that small?" 

"You not small, Candy girl," Geno said soothingly. "You perfect unicorn size. You just look small after this monster." Jeffrey was lying at Geno's feet, occupying all the space in front of the couch, and Geno reached out to rub his ears. 

"Huh. I can't - she doesn't want to go closer," Sidney said. 

Soledad shrugged. "Well, she's a unicorn, and I'm not -" and then she snapped her mouth shut and stared at Sidney. 

"I'm _not_ a virgin," Sidney said, trying not to blush and knowing he was failing. "She doesn't care about that."

"Oh, okay, well, I just went through a massive hideous breakup. So I guess those rumors are true."

Geno looked up. "Huh?"

"Some sources suggest that certain unicorns respond to purity of _feeling_ rather than purity of _body_. So, if what you feel is pure, they're all into you, but if you're still really pissed off and hurt and wishing you hadn't been such a grownup about the whole thing and having revenge fantasies and avoiding Facebook, then - well. Your feelings aren't pure, so." She shrugged. "It's a pity, because I'd love to get close to her, but, yeah. Feelings." She made a what-can-you-do gesture, and Sidney led Candy out, back to the downstairs suite. 

She settled comfortably into one of the two giant dog beds Geno had installed in the bedroom, and Sidney made sure their bathtub was full of water and that her trough had the nutritious, healthy hay she hardly ever ate in it. (Jeffrey, fortunately, wouldn't eat the hay. It was the only thing he'd ever refused to eat, as far as Sidney knew.) Then he went back to the living room.

Soledad was in the process of signing her name to the NDA, murmuring under her breath, "And my magic is bound to my word so that I may lose it if I am untrue by the terms of this agreement here stated" as she did. 

"Okay," she said. "What can I do for you?"

Sidney took a deep breath and started explaining about the broken jaw during the Islanders game, and Geno's overreaction - "Right reaction!" - _over_ reaction afterwards. "So there's a price for every spell, right?"

"Yup," Soledad agreed.

"But Geno still hasn't paid for that spell, so - we're worried."

" _You_ worried," Geno corrected.

Soledad blinked. "Um, but I just told you you're linked?"

"Yes?"

"The _link_ is the price." Soledad shrugged. "It's, like, the most common price in close connections."

"But - it doesn't _do_ anything," Sidney said helplessly.

"It just doesn't do anything at noticeable levels," she said. "Aside from making you both glow like the sun when you touch. But if he cast spells on you all the time, it might - well, usually it just makes you both feel kind of a little bit stoned after you spend a lot of time touching. But there are reported cases where the link got to be so strong that the parties could actually tell how each other were feeling. Although, um, that required two-way spellcasting at a really high volume over a protracted period of time, so I wouldn't start looking forward to it or anything. Mostly these days links just cause really happy, relaxed afterglow."

Sidney stared at her. He'd been braced for - for _something_ , something awful, something that would change their lives, that they'd have to fix, and it had turned out to be nothing big and nothing bad at all. 

It was hard to adjust to.

"See? I tell you. You worry too much. Everything fine."

Soledad looked between them. "Was that really it?" After Geno's nod, she said hesitantly, "Would you mind if I got a closer look at Jeffrey before I left? He's just really beautiful, and, well, I'm not likely to meet another one, so -"

Ten minutes later, Geno, Jeffrey, and Soledad were all sprawled on the floor, Jeffrey holding out his wings with an air of bemused patience, Geno and Soledad underneath one and talking breathlessly about his pinions and the "transitional margin" between fur and feathers. Sidney, watching them, thought about Jeffrey, about his unicorn in the next room, about the upcoming playoff games, about his _life_. About this weird definition of fine that Geno had. 

Geno poked his head out from under the wing. "You laughing at us?" he said, preparing to be indignant.

"No," Sidney choked out. "I'm laughing at me."

"Oh, okay," Geno said, grinning, "Good choice." And he went back under.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] Highway Unicorn](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1392151) by [knight_tracer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_tracer/pseuds/knight_tracer)




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